SERMON XII.

Introduction to the Contemplation of the Works of God on Earth.

GOD, whofe glory the heavens declare, whom myriads of funs and worlds adore as their creator and father, even our dwelling-place, the earth, is thy work, is full of thy glory; even we, inhabitants of the duft, in the profoundeft reverence adore thee as our creator and father. We too rejoice that thou art and that we are, and feel our dignity in its full extent, when we are able to raise our minds to thee, the Eternal and Infinite, and to conceive of ourselves as in the most bleffed connection with thee. Yes, to us alfo haft thou revealed thyfelf in all thy works. They all give proofs of fovereign wisdom and power and goodnefs, they certify us of thy paternal, gracious difpofitions towards thy creatures; they fummon us to expect of thee pure good and constantly the best. Oh that we confidered thy. works with ever increafing attention, ftudied ever better to understand them, and perceived in them

more

more clearly the traces of thy glory! Oh that we everywhere fought and found thee, who art and workest everywhere, and thus had a continually increafing correfpondence with thee, and enjoyed ever greater felicity therein! Grant then that this fubject may at present be truly important to us, o merciful father! and teach us fo to contemplate thy works, that thereby we may become wifer and better, more contented and happy. We pray thee for these mercies as the votaries of thy fon Jefus, and address thee farther in his name: Our father, &c.

PSALM CXi. 2.

The works of the Lord are great, fought out of all them that have pleasure therein.

O fee the works of the Lord, which furround us

To fe

on all hands, and to be totally careless about them, and to take no pleasure at all in the view of them, -in fuch ftupidity, my pious hearers, none but the thoroughly depraved, the man entirely corrupted and hardened by error and vice, can be immerfed. Most men, even the wicked and unwife not excepted, retain always more or lefs fentiment for the beauties of nature, for the glory of God in his creatures. Thefe beauties of nature are too diversified and too striking, this glory of God is too refplendent, to be altogether neglected or beheld

with an abfolutely infenfible heart. Which of you, my dear friends, has not frequently experienced this truth, and particularly during the uncommon fucceffion of fine days this fummer? Who does not recollect fome morning or evening walk, either alone or in company with a friend of congenial fentiments, when the view of nature in all her beauty and the enjoyment of her bounty, has affected his heart with emotions of tranfport and joy, raifed him up to nature's God, diffolved his foul in holy extafy, and made genial and benign impreffions on him? General however as thefe effects and experiences are, my pious hearers, no lefs comparatively rare is the greater, more continued attention to the works of the Lord and the fuperior fatisfaction refulting from it. And may not this defect ufually, may it not at leaft very often proceed from our entering too unprepared into this theatre of divine miracles, into this world of beauties and bounties, and without having previously learnt by reflection or instruction what we fhould make the chief objects of our obfervation, and how to arreft, arrange and fix the images and impreflions, thoughts and emotions that from all fides rufh upon us. Would I were

able to remove this obftacle to meditation on the works of the Lord and the delight therein! My prefent difcourfe is intended to contribute fomewhat at least to that end. It is my defign to offer you some direction as to the method of confidering the works of the Lord. In this view I fhall fhew

you

first, what we should attend to, what we should confider; and fecondly, what fhould be the refult of thefe contemplations, what conclufions we should draw from them, what fentiments they should awaken in us, to what actions they should excite us.

Great are the works of the Lord. Yes, my dear friends, far, far too great for our comprehenfion! So great, that we are very foon loft in the contemplation of their magnitude, that they are all involved in darkness and entirely difappear from our view, the inftant we endeavour to comprehend but a small part of them at once. Who can long fix his eyes and his mind on the ftarry heavens, on the countless hoft of funs and worlds which we there behold, who can furrender his heart to the various impreffions made upon us by this view, without being agitated by fo many, fuch grand, fuch vehement thoughts and emotions, without being feized with fuch a powerful confternation and amazement thrilling through his frame, that he is abforbed as it were in the awful fenfe of his infignificance, and retains nothing more than a faint, but bleffed fentiment of his own exiftence and the exiftence of his creator? No, we fhould, we will reprefs our thoughts --we will reftrict them to the earth and its inhabitants, inconfiderable as both the one and the other may be, contrafted with the immenfe fabric of the univerfe, with the inconceivably 'great circuit of the kingdom of God.

Wouldst thou there, o man, contemplate the first lodging of thyfelf and thy brethren, the place where thou receivedst and enjoyest thy first terrestrial life, where thou raisest thyself from the state of mere animal fenfe to the dignity of a rational being and prepareft thee for a fecond fuperior life, wouldst thou there fearch out the works of the Lord and have pleasure therein; confider

First the variety and multiplicity of the objects that constitute the earth, and the creatures that dwell on it together with thee. How varied is the form of its furface! What an alternation of enormous ridges with fummits of different heights, of hills and plains, of fpacious, open fields, and of impaffable, impenetrable forefts, of continents and feas, rivers and lakes! What diverfity and what riches in various kinds of precious gems, stones, ores, minerals, lie concealed in its bowels! What a world of wonders is inclofed in its fathomlefs abyffes! And who is able to enumerate the works of the Lord, the myriads of living and inanimate creatures, with which he has peopled the earth? Who can ascertain their numbers and variety? Who can difcriminate, difpofe, arrange them fo as to enable us to furvey them all, and to leave no chasm in the fcale of things? Number, if thou canft, the feveral fpecies and tribes of plants, of graffes and herbs, of shrubs and trees, from the humble mofs to the lofty cedar. How diverfe according to the diverfity of foil and climate! How various according to the

variety